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Saturday, February 27, 2016

Christians are making a terrible mistake. Instead of
uniting and voting for Ted Cruz, they are voting for three other candidates who
will NOT help America.

First off, why should Christians vote for Ted Cruz:

The answer is simple--he
is a proven conservative. What do I mean by "proven"?

Well, just look at his record:

He has fought to take away taxpayer dollars from
Planned Parenthood; he led the charge on behalf of 13 states to successfully
defend a federal law that bans partial birth abortion before
the U.S. Supreme Court; he has introduced legislation to protect the right of states to define
marriage, without intrusion by unelected federal judges; he defended
Texas’s marriage laws when a state court attempted to recognize a Vermont civil
union; he spoke strongly against the Supreme Court's ruling on same sex
marriage, and has without compromise stated the decision was unconstitutional; he
stood with Kim Davis in
defense of her right to live in accordance with her faith; he introduced measures to
protect faith organizations in DC from being forced to provide abortion
services to their employees and support, and even fund, activities that
directly violate their mission; he successfully defended the constitutionality
of the Texas Ten Commandments monument,
winning a 5-4 landmark decision before the U.S. Supreme Court; he has stood
with israel, fought to protect our second amendment rights and restore the
constitution time and time again.

The list goes on and on...

Simply put, Ted Cruz is a true courageous conservative that, if
elected, will keep his word.

Remember: Matthew 7:15 makes it clear
that "by their fruit you will
recognize them." Based on this simple Biblical rule, we can
know, without the shadow of a doubt, that Ted Cruz is one of us—a true
conservative.

No wonder Dr. James Dobson has endorsed Ted Cruz:

So then, why should Christians NOT vote for
Donald Trump?

Again, the answer is
simple: look at his record.

He has donated millions
of dollars to liberal candidates foryears,
and backed up too many liberal ideals for too long.

Not only was he in favor of partial birth
abortion for years, but he was also in favor of amending the 1964 Civil RightsAct to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Do you know what this means for
Christian universities?

I don’t care if Trump
says he is for traditional marriage. Actions speak louder than words. Remember, President Barak Obama used to say
he personally believed traditional marriage was best. Look at Obama now.

Someone who attempts to garner riches through
owning casinos; who fraudulently claimshis fake
universitycan turn anyone
into a successful real estate investor; and who manipulates andabuses
eminent domainfor his own
personal gain is nothing but acrook.

Trump is NO Ronald Raegan.

Ronald Raegan had been marinating in
conservative ideals for decades prior to his presidency. Ronald Raegan had been a conservative
Republican Governor of California for EIGHT years prior to his
presidency.

Let Donald Trump become Governor of New York
for eight years before running for president—then we’ll know his true
colors.

We don’t need someone with malleable ideals in Washington. We need a strong leader who will stand firmly
for what he believes.

Look at what Jimmy Carter--a liberal--had to say about the two men.

Again, America doesn't need a crooked businessman to lead the nation. America
needs to turn back to God!

2 Chronicles 7:14: “If
my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and
seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin,
and will heal their land.”

Finally, I would like to
ask you a question. Do you really trust Donald Trump, a man who is known for cutting deals,
to elect the next Supreme Court Justices?Do you?

But why not vote for Marco Rubio?

Again, let’s look at
the records.

Without a doubt, Rubio’s
record is MUCH better than trumps. However, it does pale in comparison to Cruz’s
record.

How about Ben Carson?I think Carson is better than both Trump and Rubio. But let's be honest: Carson is too low in the polls, and if you vote for him, your'e wasting your vote. If you don't vote for Cruz, Trump could win (and that would be a disaster).ConclusionWe need someone who will be unapologetically conservative, someone who can actually win the republican nomination, and someone who can beat Hillary Clinton.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Once upon a time, someone came up to you and asked you to compute the area under a curve. You were told that if you accomplished this feat, you would be awarded $1 million dollars.

So you grabbed some markers and made some pictures.

The area you were looking for was between the points a and b. So naturally, this is what you drew.

Inside the area you drew rectangles (see (a)). Each rectangle had a width of Δx (Δ means you’re dealing with little pieces), and a height of whatever f(x) is. This then means that the area of each rectangle is:

Area = Base x Height = f(x) Δx

You then added the areas of each rectangle together to get the approximate area under the curve.

Using math notation:

Area under curve ≈ Σf(x) Δx

But you weren’t satisfied with the results, so you decided to make the rectangles even thinner (see (b)). This way, you’d be even closer to the exact area under the curve.

But then you got an idea!

Why not make Δx so small, that it practically reaches zero (see (c)). Of course, this would mean that you would have an almost infinite amount of rectangles. So you decided it was time to get some new notation. The small widths that are almost zero would now be called dx instead of Δx, and the sum of these pieces would now be written as:

The a and the b mean that the little rectangles are being summed from a to b.

Basically you decided to use ∫ (which looks like an “s” for ∫um) instead of Σ.

Your idea was fantastic and you were extremely excited. You even decided you would call this new way of calculating almost-infinite sums “integrating.”

But all of a sudden, you realized that there was one huge problem: how were you going to calculate this huge sum (i.e. integral)?!

So you cracked your fingers, grabbed some more markers, and made yet another drawing.

“Hmmm…” you wondered, “what if there exists a function that describes the area under the curve?” So naturally you decided to call this function A(x). The next logical step was to call a small increase in area ΔA. Because ΔA was so close to the area of a small rectangle (like in your first picture) you immediately realized that ΔA ≈ f(x) Δx

Then, you did the following…

ΔA ≈ f(x) Δx

ΔA/Δx ≈ f(x)

<---divided both sides by Δx

You then decided you’d let those little pieces get so close to zero, but never actually reach zero. So…

dA/dx = f(x)

And then it clicked. Your eyes opened wide and you gasped in astonishment: “dA/dx is the derivative of A(x)!” you exclaimed.

Now all you had to do was find a way to undo the derivative dA/dx, so that you would end up with the function A(x). Of course, this would mean you would have to treat f(x) like a derivative, so that you could do the same thing on the other side of the equation (remember, you must perform equal operations on both sides of an equation in order to maintain both sides equal).

You decided to call the act of undoing a derivative “finding the antiderivative.”

So…

Antiderivative of dA/dx = antiderivative of f(x)

This had tremendous implications. And you summarized your conclusions as follows:

“A(x) (area under a curve) =

∫f(x) dx =

Sum of All Rectangles (i.e. Integral) =

Antiderivative of f(x)”Now all that was left was figuring out how to calculate antiderivatives. So you started simple.

“The derivative of x² is 2x, so this must mean that the antiderivative of 2x is x²,” you reasoned. But then you realized something very important—the derivative of x² + 1 was also 2x. In fact, the derivative of x² + 2 , x² + 3 , and even x² + 157 will always be just 2x.

So, you decided you would say that the antiderivative of 2x is simply x² + C (C for any constant).

In order to not get confused later, the antiderivative of f(x) would be denoted F(x) + C.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

“A
skier starts at the top of a very large, frictionless snowball, with a very
small initial speed, and skis straight down the side. At what point does
he lose contact with the snowball and fly off at a tangent? That is, at the
instant he loses contact with the snowball, what angle does a radial line from
the center of the snowball to the skier make with the vertical?”

Let’s
begin by making a more detailed picture.

As you can all see, our drawing is pretty involved, so let’s talk a little about it. First notice that we are looking for the angle Θ. Because we basically have two parallel lines cut by a transversal, we can use Θ in our body diagram. Then we can break the force acting on the skier into its components (notice the coordinate I chose for this).

So then, this means that the force acting in the y direction is: ΣFy = ma = mgcos

Θ - n

Loosing contact implies that the normal force, n, equals 0

So...

ΣFy = ma = mgcos

Θ

But remember that the formula for centripetal acceleration is v²/R (R being the radius) .

Monday, August 4, 2014

Posted
by Rebekah and EstherThe dreaded algebra coin problems have come toPlanted by Rivers. Okay, okay,
so they really shouldn't be dreaded. The truth of the matter is, if you know 5 simple
rules, then solving them should be pretty easy.

Here are the rules of the game.

Rule #1:

"Coin "Art by Rebekah

Know how much each coin is worth.

Penny: 1 ¢

Nickel: 5 ¢

Dime: 10 ¢

Quarter: 25 ¢

Half Dollar: 50 ¢

Important note: Because we are working with cents and not dollars,
we want to make sure we convert everything in the problem to cents. This will ensure
we get rid of any pesky decimals (you’ll see what I mean).

Rule #2: Choose variables (letters) to
represent the number of coins.

In other words, if I am working with dimes and quarters, I could
use “d” to represent the number of dimes and “q” to represent the number of
quarters. It usually helps to use the first letter in the coin’s name (although
you could use any letter).

Important note: Don’t forget that each letter
represents the NUMBER of coins!

"Coin "Art by Rebekah

Rule #3: Learn what phrases like “4
times as many nickels as dimes” means.

Okay, so to some people this may seem pretty straightforward.
First choose a letter to represent the amount of nickels (let’s use “n”), and
then choose a letter to represent the amount of dimes (let’s use “d”).

So you should end up with an equation that looks like this: n = 4d

But why not d = 4n? If you’re still mystified, keep on reading!
(If not, just skip to rule #4)

Now, let’s start simple. Let’s say we have the phrase “Enoch has 4
times as many balls as Daniel.” So then, if “x” represents the amount of balls Daniel
has, Enoch must have 4x balls. So, Enoch’s
number of balls = 4x

But what if we say, “Enoch has 4 times as many balls as Daniel has
cars”? Well, let’s choose the letter “b” for number of balls and “c” for number
of cars. Hmmm…the only real difference between this phrase and the above phrase
seems to be that now the concentration is between two objects and not two people. Taking this into consideration, one can
see that the correct equation for this problem would be: Enoch’sNumber of Balls = 4c
or b = 4c.

But look! We can also say: “4 times as many balls as cars,” and
the equation still remains b = 4c.

So then, phrases like “4 times as many nickels as dimes,” must
mean n = 4d.

Rule #4: Know what “more than” and “less
than” mean.

"Coin "Art by Rebekah

Yes, yes, I know—they’re never phrased so nicely. Usually they’ll
go something like this: “there are 7 more nickels than pennies” or “there are 7
fewer nickels than pennies”.

Now, let’s use “n” to represent the number of nickels, and “p” to
represent the number of pennies. As a result, “there are 7 more nickels than
pennies,” must be

WARNING:
Although n = p + 7 is the
same as n = 7 + p, n = p - 7 is not
the same as n = 7 – p. This is because subtraction is not commutative, and as a
result, 7 - p could result in a negative number of nickels!

Rule #5: Do the Algebra!

The
best way to explain this is to do actual problems. :) (which I’ll try to post
next monday)

Sunday, August 3, 2014

While reading this post, it is important to note that DNA
replication in eukaryotes is somewhat different than in prokaryotes (although
they do have a lot in common). However, as I mentioned in my last post (yes,
it’s been a long time), much of the knowledge we have concerning DNA comes from
research involving bacteria. As a result, Lord willing I will be concentrating
on DNA replication in E. coli.

OriC Up Close

Origins
of DNA Replication

Origins of DNA replication are crucial in that they
attract replication enzymes.

But how do they work?

In E. coli, the
origin of replication (which is known as oriC)
is characterized by an adenine and thymine rich sequence. A-T bonds require
less energy to denature than G-C bonds; hence, making it a logical design. This
sequence is approximately 245 base pairs (bp) long, and is partitioned by three
13-bp sequences which are then followed by four 9-bp sequences (these are
called13-mer and 9-mer sequences respectively).

Replication
Enzymes

So, how does it all begin?

An enzyme called DnaA attaches to the 9-mer repeats; The DNA
then bends, and the AT-rich 13-mer repeats hydrolyze (break). Thus, resulting in
an open complex where the double stranded DNA has begun separating.

And this is where the drawing I left in my last post
comes in handy…

An enzyme called DnaC (not pictured) caries another
enzyme called DnaB to oriC. DnaB is a
kind of helicase protein, which separates the two complementary stands of DNA by hydrolyzing the hydrogen bonds connecting complementary nucleotides.

This to me (yes, this is my opinion
here), reminds me of a zipper: helicase is analogous to a slider and the
complementary strands are analogous to the two chains of teeth (See here to
learn about the structure of a zipper).

Now, in order to keep the two strands from reannealing
(joining again), proteins called single
stranded binding proteins (SSB) attach to the unwound strands of DNA.

Unfortunately, all this unwinding causes torsional strain
on the DNA; which in turn can lead to supercoiling (kind of like a rubber band
when twisted too much). Not surprisingly then, there is another enzyme that
relieves this strain—topoisomerase.
Topoisomerases do so by catalyzing the cutting and rejoining of the
“supercoiled” DNA; hence, causing the DNA to rotate and remove the coil.

But which enzyme is responsible for the synthesis of new
DNA daughter strands?

The DNA polymerase
III (pol III) holoenzyme!

Note: holoenzymes are enzymes with
lots of proteins (as well as other compounds) that help it (the enzyme) do its
job.

However, in order to begin work, DNA polymerase needs a 3′-hydroxyl (-OH) group (Lord willing I’ll try covering
DNA’s molecular structure later). In order to fix this problem, DnaA, several
proteins, and an enzyme called primase
unite at oriC and form a complex
called the primosome. Primase then synthesizes an RNA primer that provides the
very much needed 3′-hydroxyl group.
Simply put, an RNA primer is a short stretch of RNA (somewhere between 12 and
24 nucleotides long), and “RNA” (ribonucleic acid) is a lot like DNA, but it
uses the nucleotide uracil (U) instead of thymine (T). (Note that there are
also several other differences between DNA and RNA not mentioned here).

But how are these RNA primers turned into DNA?

Well, pol III finishes its job once it runs into the RNA
primer; subsequently leaving a single-stranded gap between the last DNA
nucleotide (of the new daughter strand) and the first RNA nucleotide of the
primer. In turn, DNA polymerase III is replaced by an enzyme called DNA polymerase I (pol I), which is attracted
to the DNA-RNA single-stranded gap. DNA
polymerase I is special in that it is capable of exonuclease activity. This
means it can remove the RNA nucleotides one at a time. Note that, as DNA pol I
removes the RNA nucleotides, it replaces them with the necessary DNA
nucleotides. All this is done in the 5’ to 3’ direction.

Once the primer has been completely removed, however,
there remains a DNA-DNA single-stranded gap. In order to close this gap, an
enzyme called DNA ligase steps in,
and forms the phosphodiester bond necessary to close this gap.

The
Replisome

We have now learned about many of the enzymes associated
with DNA replication in E. coli; nonetheless,
it would be erroneous to assume that these enzymes act independently from each
other. In fact, research now indicates that these proteins and enzymes are all
part of larger protein complexes called replisomes.

WARNING: Due to several reasons, I do NOT recommend
Campbell Biology for your homeschool. However, due largely impart to its
prevalent use in colleges and universities (and even Wikipedia), I chose to use
it as a reference.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Wow, we haven't posted here for over eight months now; however, we're
planning on changing that soon! Lord willing, we want to revive this blog by
posting an array of topics that will hopefully, be of interest to readers.
We're also planning on posting more often, as that has been a struggle
ever since we started this blog.

Well for now I decided to post some pictures of some birthday cakes I made
recently. As I mentioned earlier in another post, we like to make our cakes
from scratch at our home; and since I love to bake and cake-decorate, I'm
usually the one to make my siblings' birthday cakes.

Here are the pictures (they're from 2013-2014):

This red guy--I'm not sure what kind of creature he is--is from a computer game my brother (or should I say brothers) likes to play.

This cake was for my youngest sister's first birthday--which we recently celebrated!

This is a penguin from a movie my younger siblings love--his name is Scamper (just in case anyone is curious ;) ). His beak was made out of a carrot that was covered in orange frosting, and the top of his hat was simply a piece of curly-leaf lettuce--strange, I know :) . Oh, and his eyes and eyebrows were made of raisins.

I'll leave you all with this famous piece of scripture from Matthew, that I was just recently studying; although it has nothing to do with what I posted above, I find it too beautiful not to post.

{Emphasis is mine}.

Now
when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that
these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God."

About Me

Here are ten interesting facts about our family:
1) We are born-again Christians, and our primary goal as a family, is to raise our children in the Lord's ways so that the blessings of Psalms 1 fall upon them.
2) We have ten children.
3) We homeschool ALL our children.
4) Our names, from oldest to youngest are, Bill (Dad), Lorena (Mom), Rebekah, Esther, Isaac, Deborah, Sarah, Hannah, Abraham, Daniel, Enoch, and Ruth.
5) We are extremely conservative and Republican.
6) We love Israel and the Jewish people.
7) We all speak fluent Spanish and are working on learning some Hebrew.
8) We make many things from scratch--this includes most of our food, and a significant amount of our clothing.
9) Every Friday we love having a family service;
10) We hope you enjoy our blog!